A BIRMINGHAM councillor has accused Tamworth and students of being dirty during a heated council debate on weekly refuse collections and wheelie bins.

Outspoken Tory Graham Green (Oscott) hit out at Birmingham’s neighbour as he argued that towns with wheelie bins are no cleaner than Birmingham with its black bags, while attacking students who campaign for wheelie bins.

The debate came on the day that the Government withdrew plans to force councils to carry out weekly collections.

He was speaking as the city council unanimously decided that individual neighbourhoods should decide how and how often they want their rubbish collected. Changes to collections would be funded by constituency committees, if the money is available.

Coun Green said: “Those who support wheelie bins want us to spend taxpayers money to provide them. They are not necessarily cleaner, just go to Tamworth. It is an absolute disgrace, there are bins and rubbish all over the place and no-one with the wherewithal to clean it up.”

And in a stinging rebuke to claims by Labour councillor Brigid Jones (Selly Oak) that students in her ward want wheelie bins he added: “Students are great at environmental campaigning, but no so great at getting up in the morning and putting the rubbish out.”

It was a heated debate as councillors argued that wheelie bins were not right for many roads and apartments, particularly in the densely populated inner cities.

Council deputy leader Paul Tilsley (Sheldon) opened the debate saying that when the Tory-Lib Dems took over the council in 2004 they had to stop Labour’s plans for fortnightly collections. “People do not want smelly rubbish sitting around for two weeks,” he added.

Labour spokesman Stewart Stacey (Acocks Green) called for the debates over wheelie bins and fortnightly collections to be separated. “There are parts of Birmingham where wheelie bins are acceptable and parts where there are not.”